Sep 11 2007
£42M BRITISH MAFIA MOLL’S £11K BENEFITS
‘Godmother’ may face payouts probe
A mafia moll whose husband ran a £42million crime empire is raking in benefits of more than £11,000 a year.
Brit Ann Hathaway, 45, is wed to Sicilian godfather Antonio Rinzivillo, who is serving life in an Italian jail for murder and drug trafficking.
Italian prosecutors accused blonde Ann - dubbed the Rochdale Godmother - of helping to run his crime syndicate while he was behind bars.
The former dancer got a two-year suspended jail sentence for Mafia association. Italian police suspect she had £300,000 of Mob money.
But now she keeps a low profile at a three-bed terrace house in Rochdale, Lancs - living off state hand-outs, including housing benefit and income support.
The Department of Works and Pensions may now investigate her case. A source said: “Normal checks were done but I guess the Mafia wouldn’t put money in normal high street bank accounts.”
Ann allegedly admitted taking £1,500 from a Mafia figure but denies getting Mob cash now. She told The People: “Of course I get benefits, how else could I live? I get housing benefit and income support - the lot.
“It’s all above board. My husband doesn’t give me money. How could he, he is in prison.”
Ann met Rinzivillo when she was dancing in Milan. They married in 1987 and lived in a swish villa in Rome. Rinzivillo ran money laundering, drug, extortion and arms rackets and 120 people died in a turf war.
A Pensions Department spokesman said yesterday: “People in the UK are entitled to benefits as long as they meet the normal conditions.”
£42M BRITISH MAFIA MOLL’S £11K BENEFITS - 9 September 2007 - Exclusive by Stewart Whittingham - http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=pound-42m-british-mafia-moll-s-pound-11k-benefits&method=full&objectid=19758304&siteid=93463-name_page.html
